Grateful Dead

September 17 - September 23, 2007

We’ve got some outstanding music for you this week, covering a rather limited span in the Grateful Dead’s performing history, but it’s a span that includes some of the best years.

First up in our mid-September journey is Paris in 1974, where the Grateful Dead closed out their short tour of the continent. From 9/20/74, we have this very good Weather Report Suite>Stella Blue, and from the next night, 9/21/74, we have the second set jam featuring Seastones>Playing In The Band. It was rather rare for the band to join Phil and Ned during Seastones, but this jam works very well, and hits some remarkably deep spaces. One quick digression: while going through the Grateful Dead Movie’s outtakes in preparation for the DVD production, we came across some footage of the band getting together in a dressing room before the show on 10/16/74, the first night at Winterland. Evidently, they hadn’t seen each other since the end of the Europe tour, and while talking about the excellent music on that tour, Billy begins raving about the high quality of the recordings from the Europe tour, to which the rest of the band responds that they found the recordings equally impressive. Certainly some of Kidd’s best 2-track work.

Going back a few years, we are pleased to play a couple of jams from 9/21/68. This material is drawn from a very interesting tape, in that it features Phil, Jerry and Mickey, plus a couple of guest musicians, in a studio jam right in the midst of the period in which the Mickey and the Hartbeats shows were being performed without Bobby and Pigpen. From this studio session, we have a nice Clementine Jam and another very interesting Jam.

We’re going to take a detour away from our featured week and head off to May, 1973, specifically 5/13/73 in Des Moines, Iowa. From that excellent, long show (the first of three consecutive long shows in May, with 5/20 in Santa Barbara and 5/26 in San Francisco being the others), we have Here Comes Sunshine and a nice, long and spacey Playing In The Band from the second set, and from the first set we have the rocking combination of Don’t Ease Me In>Around and Around.

Finally this week, and in memory of Corinne Crawford from Berkeley and Vermont, is the mournful Death Don’t Have No Mercy from 2/28/69.

As always, we welcome your comments and questions. Feel free to write about anything. And be sure to check back in next week when we’ll have some stellar music from 1972, 1976 and 1981.

Comments

oops, forgot to explain-
That's Captain Beefheart's 10 commandments for guitarists. There was just a tribute to his music here in Detroit so it was on my mind... And for the record it came AFTER cosmicbadger's comment, so, um, it makes more sense if you see it that way...

I dunno if you're a guitar player, Badger, but if yr a Beefheart fan maybe this'll cheer you up anyway:

1. LISTEN TO THE BIRDS That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.
2. YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.
3. PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread.
4. WALK WITH THE DEVIL Old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts demons and devils. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.
5. IF YOU'RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU'RE OUT If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.
6. NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE Your instrument has more power than lightning. Just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.
7. ALWAYS CARRY YOUR CHURCH KEY You must carry your key and use it when called upon. That's your part of the bargain. Like One String Sam. He was a Detroit street musician in the fifties who played a homemade instrument. His song "I Need A Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another church key holder is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty making you want to look up her dress to see how he's doing it.
8. DON'T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.
9. KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure to put a saucer of water in with it.
10. YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE Wear a hat when you play and keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a wet paper towel around it to make it grow.

sorry no jokes this week because this is so frustrating...have I earned a good whine by now?

However I set it up, my connection is not good enough to hear these long streams without numerous buffering breaks, Sirius is no use to me as I am not prepared to move to the USA, I don't go to Starbucks and do not play video games, so all these 'exciting developments' are either useless or like being locked outside the stadium week after week while the show is going on.

I've tried to keep myself and others amused outside here in the parking lot (and I am told that 'backchannel' I am quite the hero), but to borrow a phrase from somewhere 'its wearing thin' right now and I don't know why I bother.

If Kidd made such good 2-track recordings why the hell aren't more being made into Dave's Faves? Wouldn't it be nice if someone at Rhino would just have a little courtesy and respect and let us know what if anything the intention is for putting out further official releases.

I know i am not entitled to anything, but I am entitled to stop supporting this website and to spend my spare time instead learning how to BT and doing some trading

As you may be able to tell I've just about had enough.....as Captain Beefheart once said 'I'm not really here, I just stick around for my friends'

I think we should accept that the streaming is here to stay. It's obvious that it's better to have downloadable tracks. I loved having them and have been really disappointed that they were replaced with streaming. But I've realised that constantly asking for them back isn't going to bring them back. I know it's a hassle for a lot of people - they can't stream at work, their connection isn't fast enough, they like to listen to the tracks in the car, when walking, etc, but, unfortunately, the downloads are not coming back. It sucks for those who can't stream, but that's life.

I think David would be pretty sick of reading that people want them back. This whole thing was his idea and I'm sure he knows that people would rather the recordings were available for everyone for free (he's a fan too, remember?) but that's not going to happen anymore (apparently) and we have to grin and put up with it. Or, like some, we can refuse to interact with Rhino anymore. That's a legitimate choice. We all know where to download free Dead music if we want to.

I agree that this isn't the best situation (from out point of view) and it wasn't handled as well as it might have been (again, from out point of view) but please stop attacking David Lemieux. He continues to provide great tidbits of Grate music for as many people as he can. He has to do what Rhino tells him - they employ him. He's trying and he's assured us that some interesting stuff is in the works. Let's trust him - how often has he let us down before?

David, keep it up. It is appreciated. What I've heard of this week's picks is wonderful. Unfortunately the second 1968 track "Jam" appears to be missing. Any way this could be fixed up? Can't wait to see next week's stuff. Especially the 1981 tracks. The Taper's Section has really turned me on to the 1980s Dead - I was a bit of a 68-78 snob but I'm learning how much wonderful music there is to hear, from every year.

like a lot of you out there and I too am ready to give dead.net some money every week to be able to download the great selections from the vault.

In fact the quality of the dick picks CDs was not very good as a lot of them bought online at the full price and at the international mail cost have technical problems and 19$ to download a full concert is too much.

So the best thing would be to have the option to buy each file from the TS for 99 cents.

This note came from a couple of guys that taped a Garcia concert back in 1976, So I'm not 100% sure Jerry said "... when we're through with it (etc.)" and meant it to be carved in stone like some ancient scripture. Maybe they are not through with it yet... Then Jerry went and lived about 20 more years, while his practices toward unauthorized taping were very clear.

"Taper Talk:
-- Question - "Was Bob [Menke] friendly enough with [Steve] Parish to be allowed stage lip mic mounting?"
-- Answer - "We had no permission. We snuck the equipment in and were near the front of the line so we could get the spot. In early 1976 at Sophie's (before the veunue became Keystone Palo Alto) we tried the same thing and 2 things happened. Ramroad cut our mic cable during the first set and Parish threatened to break the 152 over our heads if he saw us trying to tape the 2nd set. Hope that answers your question."

We ought to give Dave a break, and while we're at it, not try to increase the net to include Gans now, too.

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